Entrepreneurs In Residence

John Pickard was the founding Executive Director of the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre at Georgian College and served in that role from 2014 to 2019. John honed his skills in marketing and sales with global marketers Bristol-Myers and Warner- Lambert. Following that he became Vice President of Telemedia Publishing, then Canada’s largest consumer magazine publisher. He entered the entrepreneurial ranks when he joined a start-up in the prepaid card market, which was ultimately sold to AT&T. This led to the acquisition of Orlando-based New Horizons, a cell phone company that John and his partners took public and eventually exited.  John spent the 6 years prior to joining Georgian College mentoring entrepreneurs with Mars Discovery District, Bio-enterprise Corporation, and Innovation Guelph. He has been a Board member with the Greater Barrie Chamber of Commerce, Georgian Angel Network, and the Sandbox Centre.